Friday, July 1, 2016

JUST PLANE WRONG --- PROFESSIONALLY SPEAKING --- OH, AND IT MIGHT ALSO BE A CRIME

Loretta
Lynch’s allowing Bill Clinton to come by for a private visit onboard her airplane
parked on a tarmac in Phoenix is patently improper --- depending on what Clinton
intended, and/or what they might have spoken about, it might also have involved
criminal activity

The
Clinton-Lynch “Tarmac Summit” suddenly puts the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s E-mails back into the
front of the news

“…. The investigation continues to
cast a shadow over Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign….” --- NY Times

Here’s how Politico saw this latest “CLINTON”
misadventure and the quick & large kerfuffle it caused ---“White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest praised
Attorney Gen. Loretta Lynch for her direct answer to questions about her tarmac
summit with former President Bill Clinton….The same could not be said of Earnest’s own answers to questions about
its propriety…. Repeatedly, reporters on Thursday asked Earnest whether President
Barack Obama approved of Clinton’s social visit with Lynch and her husband as
her plane sat at the Phoenix airport on Tuesday even as her Justice Department
investigates Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server in the midst of a
presidential campaign. Repeatedly, Earnest deflected, instead stressing Obama’s
insistence that the investigation should be conducted without political
interference – and Lynch’s record on upholding that principle….” (See “Lynch-Clinton 'tarmac summit': Another White House
headache”by Sarah Wheaton,06/30/16,Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/bill-clinton-loretta-lynch-white-house-josh-earnest-225008]).

The Sarah Wheaton-Politico article then gave
this background to the story:“….Lynch told reporters Tuesday that her
conversation with Clinton ‘was a great deal about his grandchildren. It was
primarily social and about our travels; he mentioned golf he played in Phoenix.’…Lynch also noted that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s inquiry into Clinton’s private email server at the State
Department is being conducted by career agents….But her answers haven’t quieted criticism.
Donald Trump pointed to it as evidence of a “rigged system,” and this Sun Belt
runway equivalent of the much-maligned Georgetown cocktail party plays easily
into the hands of anti-establishment critics….Even some Democratic lawmakers have said the meeting ‘doesn’t send the
right signal,’ as Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) put it in a television interview
Thursday….While Lynch might not have
been perfectly attuned to appearances, the White House certainly is. The
ongoing investigation into how Hillary Clinton handled her email while serving
as Obama’s secretary of state has only grown more awkward for the White House
since he endorsed her this month. The tarmac meeting only creates another
headache: appearing too critical or too defensive of her behavior could be seen
as trying to inappropriately influence Lynch…. Without regard to who supports us politically
or who opposes us politically, we're all subject to the rule of law in the same
way,” Earnest stressed Thursday….”

NY TIMES ALSO WEIGHS IN

And when the NY Times put it all into the record
of public events, it went down like this:“An
airport encounter this week between Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and
former President Bill Clinton has welled
into a political storm, with Republicans asserting that it compromised the
Justice Department’s politically sensitive investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email
practices while she was secretary of state….The Obama administration declined to say on Thursday whether the meeting
between Ms. Lynch and Mr. Clinton, in Phoenix on Monday night, was appropriate.
The press secretary, Josh Earnest, said that the investigation of Mrs. Clinton
would be free of political influence and that he would leave it to the attorney
general to explain the meeting….Ms.
Lynch said the meeting with Mr. Clinton was unplanned, largely social and did
not touch on the email investigation. She suggested that he walked uninvited
from his plane to her government plane, which were both parked on a tarmac at
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport…. ‘He did
come over and say hello, and speak to my husband and myself, and talk about his
grandchildren and his travels and things like that,’ Ms. Lynch said at a news
conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where she was promoting community
policing. ‘That was the extent of that. And no discussions were held into any
cases or things like that.’…The F.B.I.
is expected to make a recommendation to the Justice Department in the coming
weeks. While some legal experts said they believed criminal indictments in the
case were unlikely, the investigation continues to
cast a shadow over Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign….”(See “Meeting
Between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch Provokes Political Furor” by Mark
Landler, 6/30/16, NY Times/ Politics [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/us/politics/meeting-between-bill-clinton-and-loretta-lynch-provokes-political-furor.html?_r=0]).

LENGTHY CNN REPORT ON TODAY’S NEWS ABOUT THE FBI INVESTIGATION, INCLUDING TODAY’S FBI QUESTIONING OF THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, TOUCHES ALMOST ALL OF THE BASES IN A VERY ORDERLY REPORT -- IT ALSO COVERED & TIES-IN WHAT THE LORETTA LYNCH-BILL CLINTON AIRPORT MEETING MEANS IN THE BIG PICTURE OF THE INVESTIGATION

It's been widely reported that Hillary Clinton was questioned by the FBI in connection with her E-mails earlier today (Saturday).

According to the CNN report --- “Hillary Clinton met with the FBI for three and a half hours Saturday as part of the investigation into her use of a private email server while leading the State Department, her campaign said…. The investigation has cast a shadow over her campaign, and news of FBI agents interviewing the former secretary of state could heighten anxiety among Democrats that their nominee might be indicted before November. It also has put the Justice Department in the position of having a major say in how the 2016 vote turns out and serves as a reminder of Clinton's negatives to voters already skeptical of her trustworthiness….” (See “Clinton questioned by FBI as part of email probe” by Dan Berman, 7/22/16, CNN [http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/02/politics/clinton-meets-with-fbi-as-part-of-email-probe/]).

WHY IS HILLARY SO PLEASED TO BRING THE FBI INVESTIGATION TO A CONCLUSION ???

It's interesting that Hillary Clinton’s spokesman Nick Merrill said the following in a statement: "Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was secretary…. She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview…."

However, it does raise this important question --- HOW/ WHY DO HILLARY CLINTON AND/OR HER FOLKS BELIEVE THAT TODAY’S “INTERVIEW” WITH/BY THE FB WILL BRING THE FBI-DOJ “REVIEW” TO A CONCLUSION ???

According to a report in today’s NY Post, “Hillary Clinton’s closest aide revealed in a deposition last week that her boss destroyed at least some of her schedules as secretary of state — a revelation that could complicate matters for the presumptive Democratic nominee, who, along with the State Department she ran, is facing numerous lawsuits seeking those public records…. Huma Abedin was deposed in connection with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit into Clinton’s emails — but her admission could be relevant to another lawsuit seeking Clinton’s schedules…. ‘If there was a schedule that was created that was her Secretary of State daily schedule, and a copy of that was then put in the burn bag, that . . . that certainly happened on . . . on more than one occasion,’ Abedin told lawyers representing Judicial Watch, the conservative organization behind the emails lawsuit…. Abedin made the surprising admission in response to a question about document destruction at the Department of State. A lawyer for Judicial Watch asked: ‘And during your tenure at the State Department, were you aware of your obligation not to delete federal records or destroy federal records?’… Abedin was not pressed for more details….” (See “Huma Abedin admits that Clinton burned daily schedules” by Daniel Halper, 7/4/16, NY Post/ News [http://nypost.com/2016/07/04/huma-abedin-admits-that-clinton-burned-daily-schedules/]).

Mr. Halper’s article for the Post made specific note of this: “…. Clinton has admitted to destroying “private personal emails” as secretary of state. But Abedin’s admission that she used so-called “burn bags” — a container that material is placed in before it is destroyed — for some of her schedules is the first time anyone close to her has disclosed destroying public records…. The exact circumstances surrounding those destroyed records will likely come under intense scrutiny, critics said….”

FORMER OFFICIALS QUOTED FOR BACKGROUND

According to Richard Grenell, former diplomat and US spokesman at the United Nations --- “I’ve never seen anyone put their schedule in the burn bag — because every one of them had a state.gov email address and therefore their daily schedules became public records, as required by law.... I’ve never seen anyone put their schedule in the burn bag — because every one of them had a state.gov email address and therefore their daily schedules became public records, as required by law.”

As a point of comparison, the Post article quoted Brad Blakeman, a scheduler for President George W. Bush, as follows: “The [president’s] schedule was not classified but it was deemed ‘highly sensitive.’ Instructions were given at the White House and on the road that schedules would be disposed of through the use of ‘burn bags’ and/or shredding…. This shows, in my opinion, a skewed sense of security. The Clinton people would dispose of the secretary’s schedule in the same manner as if it were classified yet those same safeguards were not in place with regard to email communications.’…”

LONG-STANDING FOIA SUIT BY ASSOCIATED PRESS FOR HRC’S SCHEDULES

The NY Post article closed with this: “The Associated Press has been seeking Clinton’s schedule through Freedom of Information Act requests asking for Clinton’s public and private calendars and schedules from Jan. 21, 2009, through Feb. 1, 2013. The wire service sued the State Department for those schedules in 2015.”

About Me

I formerly have commented on various political blogs concerning Republican politics. Although the focus of my political commentary has been on the Brooklyn GOP and other aspects of politics in Brooklyn, I have also posted commentary about national matters.
If you wish to contact Galewyn Massey directly, please, Email to galewynmasban@gmail.com